Officials estimate that nearly 309,079 student, faculty and staff records were compromised, including names, birth dates, university ID numbers and Social Security numbers. No financial, medical or academic information was accessed, university officials confirmed.

The database that was accessed contained information from everyone who has received a university ID from the College Park or Shady Grove campuses since 1998.

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Unlike some recent high-profile data breaches elsewhere, the university data breach did not occur as a result of a faulty preventative system or an IT mistake, [Brian] Voss [Vice President of Information Technology at UMD] said.

“I wish it was an easy solution, that a mistake was made or a door was left open,” Voss said. “What troubles me as an IT professional is, I know the university security is really good — really good. That someone was able to get through is a real point of concern not just for the University of Maryland, but for everybody.”

Gary Price (gprice@mediasourceinc.com) is a librarian, writer, consultant, and frequent conference speaker based in the Washington D.C. metro area. Before launching INFOdocket, Price and Shirl Kennedy were the founders and senior editors at ResourceShelf and DocuTicker for 10 years. From 2006-2009 he was Director of Online Information Services at Ask.com, and is currently a contributing editor at Search Engine Land.